April 29, 2021 // Posted In Academics, Faith, Research
Readers browsing Amazon for new books in mid-April found a Baylor professor’s new release among the overall top 50 on the site — a week before it was even officially released.
The title?
The Making of Biblical Womanhood, by history professor (and Baylor alumna) Beth Allison Barr (BA ’96). Reviewing both the Bible and centuries of church history, Dr. Barr makes the case that Biblical passages used to justify “complementarianism” are often shaped more by culture and translation than by the Scripture’s historical and social contexts.
“It’s no surprise we find patriarchy in the Bible, because that’s the world the people of the Bible lived in from Old Testament to New,” Barr told Religion News Service. “What is surprising is how much resistance to patriarchy we find in the Bible. The Old Testament raises women up — women like Rahab. She’s a prostitute, and she gets (named) in the line of Jesus. In the historical, patriarchal world, there is no reason to even mention her name. We see this continuous thread where women are lifted up, and women are given authority like Deborah. And then, of course, in the New Testament we see women holding surprising positions of authority… The world offers patriarchy, and Jesus offers us something better.”